If a Tree Falls...

• Artist: Astaire
• Description: I mostly write in free verse, so this piece doesn't have a set meter or rhyme scheme. The title is supposed to be reminiscent of the age-old question, "If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?"
• Date: 07/15/2008
• Tags: tree forest suicide

We stood around her corpse:
little scientists, pretending
she was our latest experiment.
We measured her trajectory
from ledge to concrete, had numbers
to freeze her last moments in;
we took pictures, and outlined her body
in chalk.

She was our immortal question now.
She could not escape our pages and frames.

Did she scream?
Did she crack like a blood-filled egg
knocked accidentally out of the fridge
when someone reached for the milk?
Could we have heard her
if we listened hard enough?

Her body never said a word.
Broken, it traveled through the night:
sirens blaring above, tires screeching below.

All we can guess is that her mind was a forest,
and no one was there to hear her make a sound.

Comments

[knight_of_chivalry]

Astaire = double kick a**

[Major General Winter]

This is wonderful. I hope to see more of you here.

[B-B-B-BeanCup]

I don't know much about poetry but I know what I like. Apparently you do, too.

[bohemian_lover_boy]

Astaire = kick a**

[Toastbusters]

I'm tearing this apart, and it's so layered and rich - it's a ******** literary tartuffo.
There's just this brilliant resonance - the way your innocent victim of bated ignorance (a perfect archetype) just lies there. I bet she looks glorious, I bet she shimmers.

[Toastbusters]

Alright, you win - this piece is way good.
You remind me of a colleague of mine; very dark, and with that hint of innocence that keeps everything from getting too gossamer. Excellent perspective; amazing capture. So goddamn visceral. Congratulations, you're on my watchlist.

[Pheroic]

This is a really good poem!
I like the whole idea of it.
:]